Thursday, April 06, 2017

It
has been some time, but Earl is back today considering Belle Gunness and her
record.

HISTORY’S RICH WITH MYSTERIES

When I look at the past, I find stories
about people which fascinate me, particularly those in which there is a curious
mixture of fact, legend, and mysterious uncertainty. In this series of
articles, I want to explore some of those stories. I think of them as mysteries
swaddled in legend. While truth is always desired in most things, truth easily
becomes staid and boring. Legend, on the other hand, forever holds a hint of
romanticism and an aura of excitement borne of adventure, imagination and, of
course, mystery.

BELLE GUNNESS –
Black Widow, Serial Killer, Gone Girl

by Earl Staggs

No one is sure how many people Belle killed. Most
authorities estimate between 25 and 40. Among the victims were husbands,
wannabe husbands and, worst of all, her own children.

She was born in Norway in 1859 as Brynhild Paulsdatter
Størset. In 1881, she came to America, changed her name, and settled in the
midwest. Now going by the name Belle, she married Mads Sorenson in 1884, and
gave birth to four children. Two of their children died quite young of acute
colitis, a sickness which closely resembles poisoning. Their mother had life
insurance policies on the children and collected the money promptly after their
deaths.

The couple opened a candy store in Chicago, but the store
did not do well and mysteriously burned down within a year. Belle and Mads
collected the insurance money and used it to buy a new home.

Belle's husband had two insurance policies. He passed away
on July 30, 1900, which happened to be the only day the two policies
overlapped. The official cause of death was ruled heart failure. His family
suspected foul play, but before those charges could be pursued, Belle collected
on the insurance policies the day after her husband's funeral and moved out of
state.

After buying a farm near LaPorte, Indiana, Belle came across
a man she had known before who was now a widower. She and Peter Gunness married
in 1902. While under Belle's care, Peter's infant daughter died soon afterward.
Peter himself passed away only months later under cloudy circumstances. Once
again, personal tragedy lined Belle's pockets with insurance money.

Belle immediately began searching for a new mate. She placed
ads in major newspapers. The ads referred to her as a "comely widow"
and stated "Triflers need not apply." A man came from Minnesota with
money to pay off Belle's mortgage. He and his money disappeared a week later.
Another man came from Missouri. He also brought money for the mortgage, but
something about the way Belle looked at him frightened him. He ran back to
Missouri as fast as he could.

Ray Lamphere was the one man who stuck around. Belle hired
him to help run her farm. Secretly, he longed for Belle himself and resented
the other suitors she lured to the farm. Belle eventually came to realize Ray
was mentally unstable and fired him.

Men continued to come as a result of Belle's ads and were
never seen again.

One of them, an elderly widower named Ole B. Budsberg, from Wisconsin, was last seen alive with Belle at a bank in
LaPorte. He mortgaged his Wisconsin property and received several thousand
dollars in cash. Budsberg's sons, who were not aware he had gone to meet Belle,
came across her name among his papers and wrote to her in the hope she might
help them locate their father. Belle responded saying she had never met their
father and knew nothing about him.

Andrew Helgelien, her last victim, came from South Dakota
after Belle wrote in a letter to him:

Andrew arrived at Belle's farm in January, 1908, full of
hope like all those before him. He brought with him a check for $2900, which he
and Belle deposited in a bank a few days after his arrival. Shortly thereafter,
he disappeared.

Andrew's brother did not believe the vague details Belle
gave him about Andrew's disappearance and continued to make aggressive
inquiries. This, apparently, unnerved Belle to the point she felt she needed to
take drastic steps.

In the early morning hours of April 28, 1908, Belle's home
burst into flames. Joe Maxson, the man Belle hired to replace Ray Lamphere,
awoke as the fire raged and leapt from a second-floor window. The remains of
Belle's children were found in the ruins of the fire.

A woman's body was also found in the burned house. Even
though the head of the woman was not found, authorities assumed it was Belle.

Belle had previously reported Ray Lamphere to the police
as a possible threat to her because she'd fired him. Ray was arrested and
charged with murder and arson. He became gravely ill after being convicted of
arson, but before passing away, told authorities all about Belle's murderous
habits.

According to Ray, he had never killed anyone, but he'd
helped Belle dispose of her victims. Usually, he said, she drugged them, killed
them with a blow to the head, then dismembered the bodies. She'd learned the
art of dissection from her second husband, Peter Gunness, who had been a
butcher.

Normally, Ray helped Belle bury the bodies in the pig pen and other
places, but sometimes she chopped the bodies into small pieces and fed them to
the pigs. Searchers found the bones of at least a dozen men when they dug up
the pen.

The remains of seven unknown victims were eventually
discovered in unmarked graves in the pauper's section of a local cemetery.The
bodies of another manand Jennie Olson,
a girl Belle had adopted and raised, were found in another cemetery. Some
neighbors reported Belle had told them Jennie was away at a finishing school in
another state. Other neighbors had been told Jennie was attending college in
Los Angeles.

Further investigation revealed that the female body found
in the burned-out farmhouse was not Belle. Belle was a large woman weighing
well over two hundred pounds. The woman found after the fire was no more than
five feet three inches tall and weighed approximately 150 pounds.

Ray Lamphere told authorities Belle cleaned out her bank
accounts two days before the fire. The day before the fire, he said, she
drugged her maid, bashed in her head, beheaded her, tied weights to the head,
and threw it into a deep swamp. Belle left the maid's body in the house to be
discovered as her own. Finally, Belle rendered her three children, ages one,
five and nine, unconscious with chloroform, smothered them to death, and left
their bodies in the house with the decapitated maid.

According to Ray, Belle was a very wealthly woman. He
estimated she had murdered at least forty-two men after taking their money, and
had accumulated more than $250,000. That amount would be equivalent to more
than six million in today's dollars.

Belle, he claimed, had made herself disappear. Although
sightings of her were reported for many years after her disappearance, none of
them were proven.

The number of murders Belle Gunness committed places her
among the worst of known serial killers. She could easily be considered the
worst of them all since her own children were among her victims.

Texas author Earl Staggs earned all Five Star reviews for his novels MEMORY
OF A MURDER and JUSTIFIED
ACTIONand has twice
received a Derringer Award for Best Short Story of the Year. He served as
Managing Editor of Futures Mystery Magazine, as President of the Short Mystery
Fiction Society, and is a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars.

You're right, Kaye. No conscience at all and no ability to care about anyone or anything except herself and what she wanted. It's frightening to think there may be others like her out there right now. . .and they might be living next door to any of us.

"My heart beats in wild rapture for you, My Andrew, I love you. Come prepared to stay forever." A lot of men stayed forever. She was obviously as good at attracting them as she was at dispatching them. Fascinating story.

Kevin's Corner

Sandi's Cancer Fight Is Over

Thank you for your prayers, thoughts, and support for the past six years plus as Sandi did everything she could to be here with all of us. She is now free and not hurting anymore. I am still trying to pay off her past treatments at Medical City Dallas Hospital as well as at Texas Oncology. While the hospital can't handle direct donations, if you can help and would prefer to donate directly, please contact Debra, the financial counselor at TEXAS ONCOLOGY in SUITE 220 of Building D at Medical City Dallas Hospital in Dallas, Texas. We thank you for your prayers, thoughts, and support for the past six years plus as Sandi did everything she could to be here with all of us.